Dinner With The Enemy — My First Duck Game

This past weekend I experienced my first non-Civil War Duck game. The Quackers played USC in what many were hoping would be the big upset for Oregon, and although they were close, it was no cigar for the Trojans.

One of my friends who had attended the University of Oregon was in town for the weekend, so we purchased a pair of tickets for the game a couple months back. Not surprisingly, the tickets were around $120.00 apiece for one of the worst seats in the Coliseum. Regardless, we were excited and I knew it was probably going to be one of the biggest games I was going to see all season.

Photo credit: Maria Bruggere
View from our seats, lots and lots o' Duck fans.

Friday night we went to an early birthday dinner at Red O, which was delicious. After dinner we met up with some friends at the Beverly Hills Hotel for drinks. They were in town for the Duck game as well and had mentioned they had extra tickets in the Duck section that they weren't going to use. Gladly, we took the tickets offered and also rode with them to the game the next day. My friend was relieved to be in the Duck section for the game because she was nervous about how she would get treated sitting in a Trojan section. We had a Duck friend sitting with Trojans and a lot of derogatory comments were thrown at her and her family, not cool SC.

Mark Walhberg everyone.

I must also mention that we saw Mark Wahlberg walking into the Beverly Hills Hotel as we were leaving. He looks great in person and as his kids got out of the car he said to them, "Now, no shennanigans in the hotel." It was great, and my friend decided to be creepy and take this picture.








Although I was going to a Duck game, there was no way I was going to part with my Oregon State gear, not to mention I don't own green or yellow, yuck. I repped my retro Oregon State jersey all day. It confused a lot of Duck fans, but the SC fans loved it and I got several high fives.

We tailgated before the game as well and let me tell you, what an experience. Trojan tailgaters are no joke and because most of the people tailgate on campus instead of at cars, it creates for a totally different atmosphere than almost any other PAC-12 tailgater.

Ladies and gentlemen, your future Fortune 500 CEO's.

Beaver and Duck

Just before the game started, my friends gave me two more tickets they had for the row we were going to be sitting in, so I invited my friend to whom I gave the original tickets, to come sit with us — the seats were much better anyway.

Once they arrived our row became very diverse — there was my girlfriend; and most of the section in Duck gear, me in my Oregon State jersey, my friend in a tan t-shirt, and his friend in an SC shirt. Needless to say Duck fans weren't exactly thrilled, but it kept it interesting.





The game itself was as exciting as everyone had expected. It was a total game of offense, with both teams running it down for touchdowns every few minutes. At the end, Oregon was able to maintain nearly a two touchdown lead to overcome the Trojans, just as they had planned.

Throughout the game there were a couple of fights, typical bandwagon Duck fans, and some random dude who was escorted out for trying to get people to pray to the Rastafarian Gods. Random, right?

All in all, dinner with the enemy wasn't so bad and the game was wildly exciting. I have to say that watching amazing athletes such as De'Anthony Thomas and Marqise Lee was such a treat. I'm also glad I was able to go to the game and not only that, but I made it home to watch the second half of the Oregon State game too.

Two more great wins for the state of Oregon. Go Beavers, go Ducks, but don't expect to hear that second part out of me when November 24 hits.

Nobody's wiser than the man in the visor. Several 

people mistook our friend for the famous Chip Kelly 

as we walked through campus Saturday.